


Rubber Heart

by kickassanakin



Category: One Piece
Genre: Law reflects on the time he did surgery on a rubber man, M/M, Post-Marineford, Riiiiight in the middle of Punk Hazard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-16 05:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14805144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kickassanakin/pseuds/kickassanakin
Summary: Luffy's body was, scientifically speaking, fascinating.





	Rubber Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! Prompt #3 for Lawlu week is "Healing"! 
> 
> I've always been interested in what the internal mechanics of Luffy's body would be like, and I figured Law would be, too.

Luffy’s body was, scientifically speaking, fascinating.

Years ago, when the young captain had been injured nearly beyond repair, Law had the opportunity to navigate the complexities of the rubber body.

After all, he was only “nearly beyond repair” for anyone that wasn’t Trafalgar Law. Still, the surgery had taken a lot of time, and most of the real healing would have to be done by Mugiwara-ya himself.

Still, Law got to learn about something he’d been curious about, so he considered that a win.

His skin was rubbery and smooth. Law hypothesized that he probably couldn’t grow hair. His bones, Law learned, were also made of rubber – a sturdier rubber than the skin, though. If he had to hazard a guess, he’d compare them to strength and durability of a heavy-duty dog toy.

But it was Luffy’s heart that fascinated him the most.

During that long surgery, Law got more than a good look at it. It didn’t appear any different from a regular human’s heart – after all, organs tend to look rubbery to begin with – but it wasn’t what Law could see that interested him.

He had performed surgery on many people before. He had even performed surgery on himself. But he had never gotten such a close look at a heart so recently (and terribly) broken.

Outwardly, nothing was amiss. As Law patched him up, he had plenty of time to study it, and for all intents and purposes, it was your regular old human heart. But there was something within it that was too broken for even Law to repair.

Law was familiar with broken hearts. He was still nursing his own. And to see someone suffer in the same way he did… it affected him more than he’d care to admit. As he sewed Luffy back up, he wondered how different he’d be in the future. Whether he’d undergo some sort of personality change. After all, you don’t lose someone like that and come out unchanged.

But now, years after that tragedy, Law has been able to see the fruits of his labor face to face. Luffy’s grin is as vibrant as ever, but he thinks he can still pick out trace differences between the old and the new. If he couldn’t notice details like that, he wouldn’t be such an excellent surgeon.

Luffy’s innocence was gone. Sure, in a way it still remained, but the trauma of losing his brother scarred him deeper than what was on the surface. Law could feel it, just as he felt his own scars.

But he was still brilliant. Not in the “intelligent” meaning of the word, but the literal. Luffy was brilliant, like the sun, and others still gravitated towards him and his smile.It was strange.  Law felt himself drawn towards the other captain, too.

He didn’t understand why he cared so much about this bouncing idiot. Initially it had been pure scientific interest, but after that surgery, after seeing Luffy’s heart, the curiosity had not been sated. In fact, it had been ignited.

So maybe the younger captain was obnoxious, and irritating, and always rushing ahead without thinking of a plan. But there was something inside him that you couldn’t ever take out, no matter how you dissected him.

An alliance couldn’t hurt.

**Author's Note:**

> "Why do you only ever write about Law being confused with how he feels about Luffy?" you ask.
> 
> I shrug. I have no answer. "I love making him suffer?"


End file.
